Ramadan and how it feels!

(I started this blog to write stories but I felt like sometimes direct words convey the message better that a story that needs to be interpreted. I do know that stories are way more interesting and reaches fast. Anyways I wanted to try this too. Hope you guys enjoy it and most of all find it worthwhile J)

Ramadan and how it feels!

The month is filled with blessing, purity, freshness, spirituality and good will and all I personally feel is that, Allah is with me and I should become one of his favourite representative. If I envision last year, I felt the same vibe running through me and the year before was of no difference either. The suhur, iftar, salawath, tharaweeh and the most special steak porridge along with steaming samosa increases the appeal of the month of Ramadan to everyone around the globe. Though getting accustomed to waking up at 3:30 a.m. and doing dishes at 5:00 a.m. while others at home are snoring after having a nice meal, makes you want to pour the liquid wash into their nostrils, the patience that specially settles within us in this month retains the morbid interest.

However much pain and worry that suffocates us vanishes when we indulge in prayer and Ramadan is a perfect time to realize this. For when we fast, it is not only our stomach realizes the hunger of those who own less than us. We understand that people out there are suffering from things that we couldn’t even imagine handling. Our heart yearns to do something good. We feel the need to become a better person. The passion to do meritorious acts increases. We feel like reciting the holy Quran though we might not have touched it for some time now. We feel guilty when we do some immoral thing though we might never have felt any remorse before. We are said to give zakath to purify our wealth. But when we understand that it is only 0.2% of our whole wealth and that this money is going to help the needy, our greed gushes out of ourselves.

Every Muslim brothers and sisters out there are in the path of Allah and the social media that shared all sorts of thoughts, jokes, critics, news and nuisance too catches the vibe and hadeeths of the holy prophet and the words of Allah (SBHU) are mostly shared. It’s really beautiful to see that in this month even small children under the age of ten want to fast (it’s not compulsory to them), go to tharaweeh, and break their fast with everyone. Though their reasons to do these are childish, the fact that they too feel the run of spirituality in them is highly admirable.

It’s a little sad and unfortunate that adolescents do not understand the complete value of this month. Yet I couldn’t be the one to judge. For I don’t remember being exactly pious (I know I still have space for improvement!). Yet, I know I wasn’t as bad as some of those I see now. Maybe the only choice we have with handling them is to make the atmosphere they live in spiritual and give them the space to realize it rather than hording them with sermons and scolding. For a fact, I know that preaching or shouting only makes them want to continue their actions though they too feel that it is not right.

The worst part is that some adults too do not comprehend the mercy that Allah showers during this month! It’s absurd that they mock the salawaath, tharaweeh and duas that beautify the month. I know I have no right to judge them, so I just pray that Allah knock some sense into them!

Once Ramadan is about to finish the glory of it increases. The increment in prayers, offerings and the colourfully lit shops. As much as the bayans say about wasting the invaluable last ten days of Ramadan, being a girl I know that though we buy things way before the Ramadan starts even, some sort of thing will be needed for the preparation of the upcoming festival till the last night of Ramadan. So I don’t really know if giving sermons would help. For it’s not like people do so because they WANT to waste it. They just can’t help it!

After so much preparation, waiting and praying comes the Idul – Fitr! Usually we do not sleep throughout the night before (We in the sense of females!). The reasons are many. Food preparation(this time without any grumble), house cleaning after all the mess the children make, henna applying, ironing the clothes of the family members, making sure everybody’s clothes, accessories and even cosmetics are proper and eventually cleaning of a kitchen full of mess! It’s not like males do not help. Our women are used to having things done by their hands and they prefer it that way. They quote, “Doing the work once is better than cleaning a mess ten times worse!”

When the dawn breaks, the air smells of festivity. Festival salawath is heard from the mosques, once again the house is in a rush with the whole family preparing in their new clothes to go to the mosque to offer the festival prayer, mothers get busy with breakfast preparation which usually contains mutton or beef and somehow it becomes around 8:00 a.m. After coming from the mosque, ransacking of the refrigerator starts till half of the goodies inside vanish.

The most interesting part of the day starts when relatives start coming. Speaking a thousand words to get a few hundreds out of their pockets elucidates the amount of creativity we have in us! Then after the lavish lunch, every soul at home gets tired of the luxurious service they gave to their stomachs. And thus slumber of the beauties with bloated stomachs begins. In some cities festival bazaars and carnivals that sells a product of 200/- for 300/- could be seen. Though everything we buy there breaks within a week, the happiness of purchasing from these vendors with the new shiny money we received is special. So, the festivity ends with that for the day but the festive vibe remains for another three to four days.

It’s a really joyous time after the festival. But the fact that, all the spirituality we built within ourselves with a lot of self-conflict throughout Ramadan fades away after the festival is a lot sad. Since I made a vow to continue at least some of the good deeds (Insha Allah), I hoped that sharing these feeling would revive memories and make at least one person realize that they too like me had off tracked from the exact Islamic way after Ramadan.

Simply saying, “Since we feel that, we should make a change in ourselves in this month. We better use it to become a better human that our religion wants us to be.”

Enjoy a Happy and Blessed Idul - Fitr!

Suhur-(meal before a person starts the fast, before the breaking of the dawn)

Tharaweeh- (special prayer offered during Ramadan, not compulsory to offer. Yet it earns a lot of rewards from Allah)

Iftar-(breaking of the fast at the breaking of the dawn)

Bayan-(Arabic term for sermon)

Dua-(Arabic term for supplication)

Zakath-(purifying dues compulsory only to the rich whop have money more than a certain amount said in Islam)

Hadeeths-{preaching of holy prophet Muhammad (sal)}

Insha Allah-(god willingly)